Problem: The grades on a math midterm at Almond are normally distributed with $\mu = 71$ and $\sigma = 2.0$. Emily earned a $69$ on the exam. Find the z-score for Emily's exam grade. Round to two decimal places.
A z-score is defined as the number of standard deviations a specific point is away from the mean We can calculate the z-score for Emily's exam grade by subtracting the mean $(\mu)$ from her grade and then dividing by the standard deviation $(\sigma)$ $ { z = \dfrac{x - {\mu}}{{\sigma}}} $ $ { z = \dfrac{69 - {71}}{{2.0}}} $ ${ z \approx -1.00}$ The z-score is $-1.00$. In other words, Emily's score was $1.00$ standard deviation below the mean.